Troubleshooting - FloppyData Client API

Comprehensive guide to diagnosing and fixing issues with Floppydata proxies.

Quick error lookup

407 Auth Failed

Wrong credentials

403 Forbidden

IP whitelist or access issue

429 Rate Limit

Too many requests

502 Bad Gateway

Target site issue

504 Timeout

Request took too long

Connection Error

Can’t connect to proxy

HTTP error codes

407 Proxy Authentication Required

What it means: Your credentials are incorrect or missing

Common causes

Wrong username or password
Credentials not properly formatted
Extra spaces in credentials
Password changed in dashboard but not updated in code
Special characters not URL-encoded

Solutions

1. Verify credentials in dashboardGo to Dashboard → Settings and copy fresh credentials2. Check for extra spaces

# Wrong - extra space
proxy = "http://user 123:pass@geo.g-w.info:10080"

# Correct
proxy = "http://user123:pass@geo.g-w.info:10080"

3. URL-encode special characters

from urllib.parse import quote

password = "my@pass#word"
encoded_pass = quote(password)  # "my%40pass%23word"
proxy = f"http://user:{encoded_pass}@geo.g-w.info:10080"

4. Test with curl

curl -x http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@geo.g-w.info:10080 http://ip-api.com/json

403 Forbidden

What it means: Access denied to the resource

Common causes

IP whitelist enabled but your IP not added
Insufficient balance
Target website blocking proxy IP
Country/city not available in your plan
Proxy type not allowed for your account

Solutions

1. Check IP whitelistIf IP whitelisting is enabled:

Get your current IP: curl https://api.ipify.org
Add it in Dashboard → Settings → IP Whitelist

2. Check balance

curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://api.floppydata.net/v1/rotating/balance

3. Try different proxy parameters

# If city fails, try country only
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US"  # Instead of city

# Try different proxy type
proxy_username = "user123-type-mobile-country-US"  # Mobile instead of residential

4. Check target websiteSome sites block all proxies. Try:

Different session ID (new IP)
Different proxy type
Web Unlocker instead

429 Too Many Requests

What it means: Rate limit exceeded

Common causes

Too many concurrent requests
Requests sent too quickly
Target website rate limiting
Exceeding plan limits

Solutions

1. Add delays between requests

import time

for url in urls:
    response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)
    time.sleep(1)  # Add 1 second delay

2. Implement exponential backoff

import time

def make_request_with_backoff(url, proxies, max_retries=3):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)
            if response.status_code == 429:
                wait_time = 2 ** attempt  # 1, 2, 4 seconds
                time.sleep(wait_time)
                continue
            return response
        except Exception as e:
            if attempt == max_retries - 1:
                raise
            time.sleep(2 ** attempt)

3. Use rotating sessions

# Distribute load across multiple sessions
session_ids = ['s01', 's02', 's03', 's04', 's05']

for i, url in enumerate(urls):
    session = session_ids[i % len(session_ids)]
    proxy_username = f"user123-type-residential-country-US-session-{session}"
    # ... make request

4. Check concurrent requestsReduce number of parallel requests if using async/threading

502 Bad Gateway

What it means: Target server returned invalid response

Common causes

Target website is down
Target blocking proxy IPs
Network issue between proxy and target
Target website maintenance

Solutions

1. Verify target site is upCheck if the website works in your browser without proxy2. Try different proxy type

# If residential fails, try mobile
proxy_username = "user123-type-mobile-country-US"

# Or datacenter
proxy_username = "user123-type-datacenter-country-US"

3. Use session parameter

# Try sticky session
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US-session-retry01"

4. Consider Web UnlockerFor protected sites, use Web Unlocker API instead:

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.floppydata.net/v1/webUnlocker',
    headers={'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_KEY'},
    json={'url': 'https://protected-site.com'}
)

504 Gateway Timeout

What it means: Request took too long to complete

Common causes

Target website slow to respond
Network congestion
Complex page rendering
Timeout set too low
Slow proxy location

Solutions

1. Increase timeout

response = requests.get(
    url,
    proxies=proxies,
    timeout=60  # Increase from default 30
)

2. Try different proxy location

# If targeting US site, use US proxy
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US"

# Choose location closer to target

3. Use datacenter for speed

# Datacenter proxies are faster
proxy_username = "user123-type-datacenter-country-US"

4. Set separate connect and read timeouts

response = requests.get(
    url,
    proxies=proxies,
    timeout=(10, 60)  # (connect_timeout, read_timeout)
)

Connection errors

Connection Refused

What it means: Can’t connect to proxy server

Common causes

Wrong host or port
Firewall blocking connection
Network issue
Typo in proxy URL

Solutions

1. Verify host and port

# Correct
proxy = "http://user:pass@geo.g-w.info:10080"

# Wrong - don't use these
# geo.g-w.com (wrong domain)
# floppydata.com (wrong domain)
# port 8080 (wrong port)

2. Check available ports

HTTP: 10080
HTTPS: 10443
SOCKS5: 10800

3. Test connectivity

# Test if port is reachable
telnet geo.g-w.info 10080

# Or use curl
curl -v http://geo.g-w.info:10080

4. Check firewallEnsure your firewall allows outbound connections on port 10080

SSL Certificate Error

What it means: SSL verification failed

Solutions

Temporary fix (not recommended for production):

response = requests.get(
    url,
    proxies=proxies,
    verify=False  # Disable SSL verification
)

Better solution:

# Update certificates
pip install --upgrade certifi

# Or specify certificate bundle
response = requests.get(
    url,
    proxies=proxies,
    verify='/path/to/cacert.pem'
)

Target website errors

Captcha / Challenge

What it means: Target detected automation

Solutions

1. Use residential or mobile proxies

# Higher trust level
proxy_username = "user123-type-mobile-country-US"

2. Add realistic headers

headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36',
    'Accept': 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
    'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br',
    'DNT': '1',
    'Connection': 'keep-alive',
    'Upgrade-Insecure-Requests': '1'
}

response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies, headers=headers)

3. Add delays

import time
import random

time.sleep(random.uniform(1, 3))  # Random delay

4. Use Web UnlockerWeb Unlocker automatically handles captchas:

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.floppydata.net/v1/webUnlocker',
    headers={'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_KEY'},
    json={
        'url': 'https://protected-site.com',
        'render_js': True
    }
)

IP Blocked

Signs: 403 errors, blank pages, infinite redirects

Solutions

1. Force per-request rotation

# Use rotation--1 in the username, or rotation=-1 in the builder API
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US-rotation--1"

2. Try different proxy type

# Mobile has higher trust
proxy_username = "user123-type-mobile-country-US"

3. Add delays between requests

import time

for url in urls:
    response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)
    time.sleep(random.uniform(2, 5))

4. Use different sessions

# Rotate through multiple sessions
for i, url in enumerate(urls):
    session_id = f"session{i % 10}"
    proxy_username = f"user123-type-residential-country-US-session-{session_id}"
    # ... make request

Session issues

Session Keeps Expiring

Why this happens

Sessions expire after 10 minutes of inactivity

Solutions

1. Send keepalive requests

import time
import threading

def keepalive(session_url, proxies):
    while True:
        try:
            requests.head('https://httpbin.org/status/200', proxies=proxies, timeout=5)
        except:
            pass
        time.sleep(300)  # Every 5 minutes

# Start keepalive thread
proxies = {'http': session_url, 'https': session_url}
thread = threading.Thread(target=keepalive, args=(session_url, proxies))
thread.daemon = True
thread.start()

2. Use a static IP insteadFor long-running sessions, use a static IP returned by the Static IP List endpoint:

curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://api.floppydata.net/v1/static/list

IP Not Changing

Why this happens

You’re using a session parameter

Solutions

1. Remove session parameter

# From this
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US-session-s01"

# To this
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US"

2. Change session value

# Change session ID to get new IP
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US-session-s02"  # New IP

3. Force rotation

proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US-rotation--1"

Performance issues

Slow Requests

Solutions

1. Use datacenter proxies

# Faster but lower trust
proxy_username = "user123-type-datacenter-country-US"

2. Use closer proxy location

# If scraping US site, use US proxy
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US"

3. Implement connection pooling

import requests
from requests.adapters import HTTPAdapter
from urllib3.util.retry import Retry

session = requests.Session()

# Connection pooling
adapter = HTTPAdapter(
    pool_connections=10,
    pool_maxsize=20,
    max_retries=Retry(total=3, backoff_factor=1)
)

session.mount('http://', adapter)
session.mount('https://', adapter)
session.proxies = proxies

# Reuse connection
for url in urls:
    response = session.get(url)

4. Use async requests

import asyncio
import aiohttp

async def fetch(session, url, proxy):
    async with session.get(url, proxy=proxy) as response:
        return await response.text()

async def main(urls, proxy):
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        tasks = [fetch(session, url, proxy) for url in urls]
        return await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

asyncio.run(main(urls, proxy_url))

Debugging tools

Test proxy connection

# Simple test
curl -x http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@geo.g-w.info:10080 http://ip-api.com/json
 
# With verbose output
curl -v -x http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@geo.g-w.info:10080 http://ip-api.com/json
 
# Test specific site
curl -x http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@geo.g-w.info:10080 https://example.com

Check proxy IP

import requests
 
proxies = {'http': proxy_url, 'https': proxy_url}
 
# Check what IP you're using
response = requests.get('http://ip-api.com/json', proxies=proxies)
data = response.json()
 
print(f"IP: {data['query']}")
print(f"Country: {data['country']}")
print(f"City: {data['city']}")
print(f"ISP: {data['isp']}")

Enable logging

import logging
import http.client as http_client
 
# Enable debug logging
http_client.HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1
 
logging.basicConfig()
logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
requests_log = logging.getLogger("requests.packages.urllib3")
requests_log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
requests_log.propagate = True
 
# Now make requests - you'll see all details
response = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)

Validate via API

curl -X POST \
  -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "connectionString": "http://user-type-residential-country-US:pass@geo.g-w.info:10080"
  }' \
  https://api.floppydata.net/v1/tools/checkProxy

FAQ

How do I check my balance?

Via API:

curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://api.floppydata.net/v1/rotating/balance

Via Dashboard: app.floppydata.com

What ports should I use?

HTTP: 10080 (default, recommended)
HTTPS: 10443
SOCKS5: 10800

Most tools work with port 10080.

Can I use the same session across different devices?

Yes! The session is tied to the session ID in the username, not to your device.

# Same session = same IP across devices
proxy_username = "user123-type-residential-country-US-session-shared01"

Why am I getting different speeds?

Speed depends on:

Proxy type: Datacenter > Residential > Mobile
Location: Closer proxy = faster
Network congestion: Varies by time
Target website: Some sites are just slow

For best speed, use datacenter proxies in the same region as target.

How many concurrent connections can I use?

Depends on your plan. Check limits:

curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://api.floppydata.net/v1/rotating/statistics

Or contact support for custom limits.

Can I whitelist IPs?

Yes, in Dashboard → Settings → IP WhitelistWhen enabled, only whitelisted IPs can use your proxies.

What's the difference between rotation--1 and rotation-0?

rotation—1 means rotation=-1 in the builder API:

New IP every request
Best for broad scraping where identity stability is not needed

rotation-0 means rotation=0 in the builder API:

Keep the same IP within a session
Best for login, checkout, or other multi-step flows

Getting help

Check API status

See if there are any ongoing issues

Contact support

Email: support@floppydata.comResponse time: < 24 hours

Dashboard

Check balance, usage, and settings

API Reference

Complete API documentation

When contacting support, include:

Error message or code
Your code snippet (remove credentials!)
Timestamp when error occurred
Expected vs actual behavior

​Quick error lookup

407 Auth Failed

403 Forbidden

429 Rate Limit

502 Bad Gateway

504 Timeout

Connection Error

​HTTP error codes

​407 Proxy Authentication Required

​403 Forbidden

​429 Too Many Requests

​502 Bad Gateway

​504 Gateway Timeout

​Connection errors

​Connection Refused

​SSL Certificate Error

​Target website errors

​Captcha / Challenge

​IP Blocked

​Session issues

​Session Keeps Expiring

​IP Not Changing

​Performance issues

​Slow Requests

​Debugging tools

​Test proxy connection

​Check proxy IP

​Enable logging

​Validate via API

​FAQ

​Getting help

Check API status

Contact support

Dashboard

API Reference

Quick error lookup

HTTP error codes

407 Proxy Authentication Required

403 Forbidden

429 Too Many Requests

502 Bad Gateway

504 Gateway Timeout

Connection errors

Connection Refused

SSL Certificate Error

Target website errors

Captcha / Challenge

IP Blocked

Session issues

Session Keeps Expiring

IP Not Changing

Performance issues

Slow Requests

Debugging tools

Test proxy connection

Check proxy IP

Enable logging

Validate via API

FAQ

Getting help